


Another Life that I Might Have Had

by lamerezouille



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Episode: s01e01 Dragon's Call, Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-29
Updated: 2014-05-29
Packaged: 2018-01-27 01:15:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1709621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lamerezouille/pseuds/lamerezouille
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Lady Helen of Mora went to Camelot to sing for the anniversary of the Purge, she had plans to do something else entirely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Life that I Might Have Had

The Isle of Mora is one of the smaller of the realm, but there are a lot of sorcerers here, there always have been. Helen doesn’t know any of them personally—or maybe she does but they hide their identity because of her links to the King—but she knows her maid’s brother is one, and that he was the one to heal her when she got infected by the Dark Disease.

Sorcerers and any kind of magic have been outlawed here the same as in the rest of Camelot, but the Isle’s Lord has never been strong—or cruel—enough to condemn to death the only people able to get rid of an epidemic none of the best healers could cure.

Helen knows why Magic is forbidden in Camelot. She knows Uther; she's been friends with him for a long time. She knew Ygraine, too, and was one of the first to weep when the news of her death came to Mora. But she also thinks Uther is mistaken.

The Dark Disease came to the Isle a couple of years after the Purge, and they all had reason to be grateful Sorcerers had been successfully hiding in the back woods of the Isle, because without them, the population would have been completely decimated for sure.

It took them fourteen months to completely eradicate the disease, and after that, no one could justify following Camelot’s law against magic anymore, so they just didn’t. They didn’t secede from Camelot altogether, though. It would have been too dangerous: Camelot was the one with the armies and the gold, and the Isle of Mora wouldn’t have survived without its help. All they had to do was make sure Sorcerers were careful not to use magic when the King’s emissaries visited their Isle.

They could have lived eternities like this, in peace and health, a little island off the south coast of Camelot. But it has been twenty years since the purge, and some of the children don’t even know magic is supposed to be forbidden. The rest of the Kingdom is not far enough for young people not to want to travel through it.

Two weeks ago, Aelfric, an eighteen year-old sorcerer left the Isle to go discover the rest of the Kingdom. Yesterday he got arrested by a squad of Camelot Knights, and he is to be executed soon. Word of his fate has come from the continent faster than it ever has. A letter from Uther came for Helen at the same time. He is inviting her to sing at the feast celebrating the twenty year anniversary of the Purge.

Helen knows what she has to do and she is determined. She hasn’t seen Uther in a long time, but she knows he will have to listen to her.

She prepares the songs she will sing and rehearses the words she will say. She has to try, at least. It will be too late for Aelfric, but it is never too soon for all the others. She’ll talk of the Dark Disease and of all the good the sorcerers have done for the Isle of Mora. If Uther hears it from a friend, maybe he will soften his stance on magic.

Helen has hope in her heart when she sets sail.

She doesn’t know that Uther’s cruelty has already reached too far. She doesn’t know that a woman named Mary Collins lost her son to Uther’s cruelty a few days after Aelfric’s death. She doesn’t know that Mary’s plans to make Uther see reason are more violent than Helen’s.

Helen will never be able to speak to Uther about her maid and what saved her from certain death.

Uther will never have a friend brave enough to do so.


End file.
